Kal-El (Smallville)
Superman is from the WB/CW series, Smallville. Clark Kent, otherwise known as Kal-El of Krypton, was launched off of the exploding planet Krypton by his father, Jor-El. After the planet's destruction, little Kal-El flew for approximately three years before landing on the inhabitable Earth. Found in Smallville by Martha and Jonathan Kent, Kal-El grew up on a farm under the name of Clark Kent. Clark would not find out where he really was from until age fourteen, informed by his adoptive father. At the age of fourteen, he already exhibits invulnerability, super strength and super speed. Powers and Abilities Kryptonian Physiology *'Solar Energy Absorption' *'Flight:' Like all super-powered Kryptonians, Clark Kent possesses the innate ability to defy gravity and fly within an atmospheric environment. However, he has not been able to harness it at will. It is unknown whether Clark's latent ability enables him to break Earth's atmosphere or travel in outer space (but he can survive in a vacuum as demonstrated in Hidden (Season 5, Episode 3) when he disabled a missile in near Earth orbit). This is arguably, Clark's least-used super-power due to his inability to summon it willfully. It has been postulated that he has a natural fear of flying but there is little evidence of this phobia, only an awkwardness when he was teased by his cousin Kara, who can fly with ease.. He has demonstrated this latent ability however, on several occasions and in very specific circumstances. During a time when Clark was under the influence of Jor-El's programming, he flew across the Kansas skyline (though he has no memory of this incident). However, Jor-El also gave a similar power to Lindsey Hamilton, a dead human teenager which Jor-El named "Kara" after his niece, Clark's cousin. In that episode "Kara" held Kent's hand and they both smoothly levitated slowly off the ground prompting a bewildered Clark to say "I can't fly". "Not yet. This is just the beginning, Kal-El. You have no idea how powerful you'll become." "Kara" said in response. He has also levitated himself a foot above his bed while asleep and dreaming of Lana Lang but again, this was not under his conscious control. He also willed himself to move in desperation to Lana's truck as they both was trapped in a Tornado in Vortex (Season 2 , Episode 1), but he did not realize what he was doing at the time. Clark has on many occasion leaped up to extreme heights, much as the Superman character originally did when he was first created in the late 1930s (the origninal Superman couldn't fly and didn't do so until about 1940) giving birth to the slogan "...able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". In one instance, he leaped across the street from a high ledge off the Metropolis LuthorCorp office. In another incident, he made a super-leap to stop the launch of a nuclear missile. However, he fell to Earth as he always has. Some insist that these great leaps are masks for his ability to fly even that he is really flying albeit he doesn't realize it. However, he has never demonstrated the ability to land softly or change direction in mid flight when he was himself. Most other Kryptonians, his cousin Kara; his uncle Zor-El; his own father, the real Jor-El when he was on Earth in the early 1960s(Relic Season 3, Episode 6) all demonstrated their control of flight by their way of being able to take off slowly, change direction, levitate and land softly. Even General Zod an escaped Phantom Zone prisoner who was a Wraith and who possessed Lex Luthor in Zod (Season 6, Episode 1) met all those conditions. The answer as to why Clark can't fly may be in his development on Earth. In past seasons he has been shown to develop individual powers in steps: X-Ray Vision (X-Ray Season 1, Episode 4 Age 14), Heat Vision (Heat Season 2 Episode 2 Age 15), Super Hearing (Whisper Season 3, Episode 10 age 16), Superbreath (Sneeze Season 6, Episode 2 age 19). At age 22 flight is the last major power he has yet to develop in which he controls consciously and at will. One notable exception of Kryptonians flying on Earth: The Disciples of Zod, the Kryptonian tyrant's servants from Krypton also did not fly when they appeared in Arrival (Season 5, Episode 1). In addition the two humans who had temporarily got Clark's powers (both through electrocution while holding on to Kryptonite and Clark at the same time), Eric Summers in Leech (Season 1, Episode 12) and Lana Lang in Wrath (Season 7, Episode 7) also did not fly, pointing to a physical reason as to Clark not flying. In the season 9 premiere, Clark confronts Jor-El about not being able to fly. Jor-El informs him that his powers lie within him and that his physical composition is no different than Kara's, but that Clark still thinks of himself as human. Clark deduces that his inability to fly is all in his head. Later in a mental trial, he attempts to fly by falling from the Statue of Liberty with no apparent results. In the series finale, during a battle with Darkseid, Clark looks back on all his experiences in Smallville and unlocks his innate ability to fly. *'Superhuman Strength:' Theoretically, his strength level, though several times greater than that of a normal human being already, will increase as he gets older. While there is a relationship between his strength level and his ability to photosynthetically process ultraviolet radiation, his super-strength is not dependent upon exposure to sunlight. There have been several instances where he has faced other Kryptonians who possess strength level in excess to that of Clark as they have matured physically , without having spent an equal amount of time in a yellow sun environment. Although the extent of Clark's strength has not been established Clark has been seen however as strong enough to rip through solid steel doors, lift conventional vehicles with ease and crush metals in his grip. Currently Clark can lift at least 20 tons without harnessing extra solar radiation. He has been depicted as capable of much more. Once he caught a speeding car that was at the start of a tumbling end over end crash and flying toward him at a high rate of speed. He caught it in mid air with no difficulty without even backing up under the force of impact of the car's inertia. A car weighing close or exceeding two tons would generate a force of much more than 20 tons if caught in mid flight at the speed it was moving. Clark's maximum strength is likely nowhere near what it will be once Clark matures into his prime; and becomes Superman. As the series progresses Clark's strength is shown to increase. In the series finale he pushes the planet Apokolips away from Earth and throws it back into space. *'Superhuman Speed:' Clark can run and move his body at high hyper-sonic speeds as stated by the producers of the series, and uses this ability as his preferred means of traveling. In most situations, his movement is so fast, that he appears as barely more than a blur of motion. At his maximum velocity, he cannot be seen at all. He has run across the country in a matter of minutes. The producers have not stated how it is possible for Clark to move at speeds in excess of sound (761 mph at sea level) without featuring a sonic boom but perhaps a trait form the comics has been carried over, as Clark from the mainstream DC comics says that he hadn't learnt how to suppress sonic booms yet implying he will be able to (as seen in Superman : Camelot Falls). Although Clark's super-speed is exceptional, he is still not as fast as young super-speedster Bart Allen. While the extent of Clark's speed has not been established Clark has repeatedly been shown as "faster than a speeding bullet" as he is able to catch bullets and therefore must be able to move at speeds in excess of Mach 3 (2,310mph) the typical speed of a high velocity sniper bullet. While his upper limit as to how fast he can run has not been stated, it is well past Mach 3. He has been shown with him superspeeding from Smallville to Central American nation of Honduras in search of Braniac, covering the 1,700 miles in approximately 10 seconds producing a speed of 170 miles per second, which is an astonishing 612,000 mph (Mach 806)! By way of comparisons the space shuttles routinly orbit the Earth between 17 and 18,000 mph. The Helios 2 sattelite lauched in 1976 to study the Sun reached speeds exceding 150,000 mph at its closet approach to the sun in its orbit around it, making it the fastest object created by humans. Meteor Crater in Arizona was formed by a meteor striking the Earth at a mere 28,600 mph. The meteor or comet that many scientist say killed the dinorsaurs and almost all other life on Earth 65 million years ago hit it at some 45,000 mph, producing compression heat from the atmosphere of several thousand degrees. Not only did Clark not produce a sonic boom but he did not ignite everything in his path within several hundred feet of him through atmospheric compression, which probably should be in the 100s of thousands of degrees at the speed he moves, hundreds of times hotter than the surface of the Sun. He also has been shown many times super speeding from Smallville to the Fortress of Solitude at the Arctic Circle. Further, he has carried many humans, including Chloe and Lana in his arms while superspeeding, even at these phenomenal rates. Why they and other humans Clark has carried haven't been torn apart by both the G forces generated and atmospheric resistance has not been explained but is also a carry over from the comic books. *'X-Ray Vision:' Developed when he was 14 years old early in the first season, Clark can see through any solid object except for lead. It may appear as a bluish skeletal image similar to the ones seen on hospital x-rays, or it may be a full color image. Clark appears to have mastered the skeletal images over full color. *'Heat Vision:' Developed at age 15 early in the second season, Clark can emit beams of thermal energy from his eyes. In most cases, this energy is barely visible and Clark is able to use it without risk of exposing his secret identity. Clark uses it as an offensive mechanism to increase the temperature of targeted matter, or in the case of combustible materials, causes them to explode. Currently, Clark's heat vision is powerful enough to stop a tidal wave dead in its tracks. *'Super Hearing:' Developed at age 16 early in the third season, Clark can hear objects and voices from miles away and distinguish them from unwanted background noise. He developed his hearing when he had to rely on it when he was temporarily blinded by his heat vision. *'Super-Breath:' Developed at age 19 early in the sixth season, Clark was vulnerable in the Phantom Zone and returned to Earth with super strong sneezes. When he got better, he honed the sneezes as super breath. He can make hurricanes, or simple wind with it. *'Longevity:' This is one of Clark's more nebulous super-abilities, the full extent of which is a matter of speculation. In one instance, an boy with the ability to see how others will die tells Clark that he "will never die... that he just keeps going on - forever." *'Regenerative Healing Factor:' Clark possesses the ability to heal at a faster and more extensive rate than a normal human. He does not control this ability and is only seen when harmed in the presence of kryptonite, or if he is damaged by another superhuman being. Usually regenerates wounds in a matter of seconds. Category:Characters Category:Kryptonian Category:DC Category:Smallville